HOWTO: nforce2 sound default drivers

[::DoGG::]

You really made my day man !!!
After 2 days digging in the net and trying anything ( well, somehow i felt that this all sound server stuff is bad...) i tried that and worked great. At last ! no delays on video playback, they should fix it in another release, cause it gives a lot of people the problem when they use esd as the output in the video players, once they change to alsa or oss no delays, but i couldn`t get alsa working, so this howto is great !!!!!!!!

P.S. I`m on amd64 release and nForce3 - so it works in this chipset too.

[RastaMahata]

You really made my day man !!!
After 2 days digging in the net and trying anything ( well, somehow i felt that this all sound server stuff is bad...) i tried that and worked great. At last ! no delays on video playback, they should fix it in another release, cause it gives a lot of people the problem when they use esd as the output in the video players, once they change to alsa or oss no delays, but i couldn`t get alsa working, so this howto is great !!!!!!!!

P.S. I`m on amd64 release and nForce3 - so it works in this chipset too.

heh no problem

[hevtig]

Thanks alot for your descrition howto make my nforce2 sound work.

But I still have some problems with multiple sounds...

XMMS froze with ESD, now works fine with ALSA, but I still can´t use another program using sound.

I tried XMMS (worked) then started "Teamspeak2". This programms uses OSS as standard and I didn´t get it work on ALSA. Strange is, Teamspeak starts only at the moment XMMS stops.
i.e. I start XMMS and TeamSpeak, but TS only starts, when XMMS quits. Someone got experience in this?

It seems that I´ve have no multiple sound at all. even gaim sound does not appear, when XMMS is started.

got some advice? I´m not a pro in Linux...

thanks a lot

[Axklor]

PLEASE NOTE!

This method of playing multiple sounds (mixing) through the ALSA driver is referred to as "software mixing"

while there is no ALSA driver that supports the nforce2 APU fully, this driver makes good use of the codec and allows you to cleverly play multiple sounds via "software mixing".

The official nvidia driver includes an OSS driver, which includes full hardware mixing and 5.1 with DTS for the nforce2 "SoundStorm" chipset, while OSS is now deprecated as a driver, some will probably find the official nvidia driver a little better, i have noticed better quality through the OSS driver, but as some may say, if its not broke, dont fix it.

I am currently using the ALSA driver, but from my experiences with other distro's and the OSS driver I am going to give it a try, so look out for a howto soon showing you how to get it working.

[mega]

I still cant record, no matter what I do I cant boost the mic volume, I can hear it, but I have to crank the speakers wide open

[hevtig]

I have still the problem told above.

ESD doesn´t work
ALSA works, but I cant´t start another programm using the soundcard
OSS works, XMMS and Teamspeak starting, but only XMMS working, muted in teamspeak
nforce drive - install didn´t work ´cause you need kernel sources... sorry, but I´m new to this.

Somebody can help me?
What is the best way to get this thing work?

[djnitro]

I have still the problem told above.

ESD doesn´t work
ALSA works, but I cant´t start another programm using the soundcard
OSS works, XMMS and Teamspeak starting, but only XMMS working, muted in teamspeak
nforce drive - install didn´t work ´cause you need kernel sources... sorry, but I´m new to this.

Somebody can help me?
What is the best way to get this thing work?

Same problem here, only I can't install the network drivers for my NForce Motherboard

-/\/-

[fragmental]

This used to be posted in the desktop forum. I think it deserved to be posted here for people to search

I found a .asoundrc file that allowed me to play several sounds. Here are the steps Followed (I have an nforce2 chipset)

1. killall esd
2. System > preferences > sound > the sound server thing: unchecked
3. gedit ~/.asoundrc (or /etc/asound.conf), and paste this:

pcm.nforce-hw {
    type hw
    card 0
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "nforce"
}

pcm.nforce {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1234
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,0"
        period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 4096
        rate 44100
    }
}

ctl.nforce-hw {
    type hw
    card 0
}

3. sudo gedit /etc/libao.conf, and where it says esd, type alsa:

default_driver=alsa

4. System > preferences > multimedia: Select ALSA above, OSS below. This way you can record with your mic.
5. After you've changed /etc/asound.conf, use Synaptic to perform a smart pakage install. Install the libesd-alsa0 and all dependecies. (Thanks Ranime)
6. That's it, no need to reboot

test by playing a movie _and_ a song (totem + rhythmbox)...

anyway, gaim sounds seem choppy / bad quality, but totem movies play excellent (no audio delay). I've learnt how to live with it, though. (Maybe changing the sounds could work...)

The driver for the nvidia spu is the i8x0 driver, isn't it? and it uses the "ac97_codec"? My nforce2 board actually uses a cmi9761a chipset and it uses the i8x0 driver. In windows, I can use the nvidia sound driver, but it seems like some of the functionality doesn't work right so I use the drivers from c-media. It's really kind of confusing. The manual just says "ac'97 codec".

Does anyone know how to get 5.1 sound to work? I used to use this asroundrc with my soundblaster live.

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    #slave.pcm "sound51"
    slave.pcm "dmix"
}

pcm.dmixs51 {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1024
        slave {
                pcm "hw:0,1"
                rate 48000
                channels 6
                period_time 0
                period_size 1024
                buffer_time 0
                buffer_size 4096
        }
}

pcm.s51 {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmixs51"
}

pcm.dsp0 {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmixs51"
}

pcm.sound51 {
    type route
    slave.pcm s51
    slave.channels 6
    ttable.0.0 1
    ttable.1.1 1
    ttable.0.2 1
    ttable.1.3 1
    ttable.0.4 0.5
    ttable.1.4 0.5
    ttable.0.5 0.5
    ttable.1.5 0.5
}

It might still work, but I'm nto sure how to combine the multisound configuration for the multiple sounds and the 5.1 configuration. Too bad there's not a good Alsa tool to set up things like this.

[BLTicklemonster]

Cool. Now to see if teamspeak works with ubuntu, and if I can use yahoo voice conferencing with it.

[wammy]

ok,
i have an msi kt7n2 nforce2 mobo

i followed the instructions from here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44753

and changed the asound.conf with the info from here but still cant mix things.

for example, teamspeak works but prevents all other apps to use OSS or ALSA so i cant play games on cedega

also,
i didnt have any asound.conf files before i tried all this... is this normal? what is it used for anyway and how come it used to work without thise conf files?

futhermore,
some people claim to set the multimedia thing both to alsa, here iread to set it to alsa and oss, what up with that.

these sound troubles remind me of what windows was 10 years ago.
sometimes i really love linux, sometimes i like to throw it out of the windows (pun intended) and i've been playing with it off and on for at least 5 years now.